One Man's Notes on Movies and Other Life Obsessions by Chuck Wilson

January 14, 2013

To
me, Jodie Foster's muddled mess of a speech speaks to to a person too
enamored with her own intelligence, who has no self-filter (one of the
perils of being bookishly brilliant). But...regardless of what she said
onstage, the producers of the Golden Globes treated Jodie Foster quite
shabbily last night. Usually, the presentation of the Cecil B. DeMillle
Award is the centerpiece of the night, with one or two co-stars singing
the winner's praises, and more significantly, the running of a long clip
reel, one that features key performance moments. Scenes, actual scenes!
One of the nice things the Globes has always done is insert a
picture-in-picture box so that we can see the honoree's face as he or
she watches the clips. This can be very moving, but last night, the clip
reel was an MTV-style speed train, set to action movie music, that
reduced an extraordinary career to trashy insignificance. And though he
may be her great friend, Robert Downey Jr., should never be allowed to
present an award. He's so self-satisfied that he turns every moment into
a referendum on his own smug coolness. (Unbearable.) He said nothing about Foster's significance to film. It was a travesty. So...I felt sorry
for Jodie before she ever took the stage. As a great American actress,
she deserved better. (Chuck Wilson)